Apparatus for rowing in the direction the rower is facing

ABSTRACT

Apparatus for rowing in the direction the rower is facing has a base frame, where the main bearing for a lever with hand grip and for a lever with oar and a linkage that connects the lever with hand grip and linkage with oar to form a counteracting four-bar linkage system with actuated bearing body as the driven arm of the four-bar linkage and linked to a rotation drive with a main axle and virtually coaxial actuator. To achieve advantageous rotation of the lever with oar, the lever with hand grip rotates about its axis so that within the four-bar linkage bearing body is able to rotate and actuate an actuator rod that is virtually coaxial to the main axle on bearing body, that engages with a rocker arm mounted on the base frame to shift the actuator rod of the rotary drive to rotate the lever with oar.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Applicant claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 of Austrian Application No. A50607/2014 filed Sep. 3, 2014, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention is for an apparatus for rowing in the direction the rower is facing with a base frame, where the main bearing for a lever with hand grip and for a lever with oar and a linkage that connect the lever with hand grip and linkage with oar to form a counteracting four-bar linkage system with actuated bearing body as the driven arm of the four-bar linkage and linked to a rotary drive with a main axle and virtually coaxial actuator.

2. Description of the Prior Art

To row in the direction the rower is facing, a lever with oar with the oar blade is implemented separately from the lever with grip in a way that the lever with oar makes the opposite movement so that when the rower makes a recovery stroke in the direction of travel with the lever with grip, the lever with oar makes a recovery stroke forwards. For this purpose, the prior art is to connect the lever with oar to the lever with grip using a linkage that creates a counter-acting four-bar linkage. The lever with grip and the lever with oar are mounted on a base frame with the axes of movement in the direction of travel to ensure that the oar blades enter the water and are drawn out again when the lever with grip is raised for the drive stroke and lowered again for the recovery stroke. To feather the oar blades at the end of the drive stroke so that they can pass close to the surface of the water for the recovery stroke and then square them again for the drive stroke, the prior art (WO 2013/126938 A1) is to mount the lever with oar so that it is able to rotate about its axis and link it to an actuator that can be moved coaxially to the bearing body and rest on one of the pivot axes for the base frame so that it does not follow the pivot movement of the base frame in the direction of travel and instead converts the movement of the actuator into feathering the lever with oar. However, this automatic feathering and squaring of the oar blades as a function of the pivot movement of the lever with grip along an axis running in the direction of travel does not allow the rower to have any influence on the position of the oar blades, independently of the position of the base frame.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention forms the basis for an apparatus that allows rowing in the direction the rower is facing while allowing the rower to feather the oar blades in the normal way by rotating the lever with grip.

Based on an apparatus of the prior art described above, this invention solves the issue in that the hand grip rotates about its axis so that within the four-bar linkage, the lever with grip is able to rotate and actuate an actuator rod that is virtually coaxial to the main axle on the bearing body, that engages with a rocker arm mounted on the base frame to shift the actuator rod on the rotary drive for the lever with oar.

The rotary mounting of the lever with grip in the bearing body that forms the crank of the four-bar linkage enables the rower to use the grip to manipulate the oar blade in way that is normal for rowers because the lever with grip can not only pivot the base frame over an axis in the direction of travel during the drive stroke and recovery stroke, but also rotate about its own axis. The rotating action about its axis of the lever with grip therefore needs to be transferred into a rotating action for the lever with oar. For this purpose, the rotating movement of the lever with grip is transferred to the actuator rod inside its bearing body—which is virtually coaxial to the main axle of the bearing body in the base frame—and which actuates a rocker arm on top of the base frame. The rocker arm then transfers the rotating movement of the lever with grip to the actuator for rotating the lever with oar so that the oar blade is feathered and squared according to the rotating movement of the grip lever. The movement of the actuator virtually coaxial to the axis of rotation of each bearing body inside the base frame ensures that the bearing bodies can rotate about their axes without affecting the transmission of the lever with grip position via the actuator rod and rocker arm to the lever with oar.

The rotating drive system for the oar lever could be implemented as a toothed rack with a toothed rack for the actuator. However, the preferred design is if the rotating drive system for the oar lever has a toggle joint between the bearing body and the oar lever where the toggle joint is directly linked to the actuator. The rotating movement of the lever with grip is then transferred to the rocker arm by the actuator that is linked directly to the crank on the lever with grip.

The actuators then act directly on the rocker arm at one end and the toggle joint at the other end to transfer the rotating movement to the lever with oar and the crank at the lever with grip. Due to the slight shift in position during the actuation movement in relation to the position of the bearing body axes, the actuators have to be mounted on ball joints to connect to the rocker arm and the toggle lever and crank.

A precise coaxial movement of the actuators in relation to the axes of the bearing bodies is desired, so the actuators have to be linked to the rocker arm with the necessary freedom of movement as well as at the bearing bodies to ensure coaxial movement as they are connected to a linkage at the toggle joint for rotating the lever with oar and the crank for transmitting the rotating movement of the lever with grip.

In order to facilitate the feathering and squaring of the lever with the oar blade as a result of the movement of the lever with grip, the lever with grip features a spring configuration that applies torque to the lever. Because opposing torques are required during feathering and squaring of the levers with oar blades, a spring system is configured between the lever with grip and the bearing body so that the line of action of the spring configuration intersects the axis of rotation of the lever with grip when it is positioned half way between the two limit positions. As a consequence, when the lever with grip is rotated so that its position of rotation crosses the line of action of the spring configuration, the direction of torque acting on the lever with grip changes so that the spring configuration assists rotation into the desired limit position for feathering or squaring the oar blade.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The subject matter of the invention is shown in the drawing by way of example, wherein:

FIG. 1 Plan view of the invention to row in the direction the rower is facing showing the area of the counter-acting system between the lever with grip and the lever with oar,

FIG. 2 Section II-II through FIG. 1 shown in a larger scale,

FIG. 3 Same section through counter-acting system as FIG. 2 but with a different oar setting,

FIG. 4 Same section as FIG. 2 showing a design version of the counter-acting system invention,

FIG. 5 Same position of counter-acting system as FIG. 3 but showing detail of the spring configuration for rotating the lever with grip and

FIG. 6 Same section as FIG. 5 showing a design version of the spring configuration for applying torque to the lever with grip.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The apparatus to row in the direction the rower is facing requires an oar blade (1) mounted on an oar lever (2) with separate lever with grip (3) that is linked to the oar lever (2) by a reversing unit in the form of a counteracting four-bar linkage (4), as shown in particular in FIG. 1. This four-bar linkage (4) consists of a base frame (5) with two plates (7, 8) held apart by spacers (6) in which the bearing bodies (9, 10) are mounted on axle bearings. Lever with oar (2) is mounted on bearing body (9) and is free to rotate about its axis. In the same way, lever with grip (3) is mounted on bearing body (10). Bearing body (10) forms the driving crank of the four-bar linkage together with bearing body (9) and linkage (12). If bearing body (10) is pivoted by lever with grip (3) about its bearing axle (13) mounted in bearings (11), the bearing body (9) with lever with oar (2) is pivoted in the opposite direction around bearing axle (14) on bearing body (9).

To submerge the oar blade (1) in the water and lift it clear of the water again, the base frame (5) is mounted as in the prior art on a pivoting axle that runs parallel to the direction of travel, which is not shown here for reasons of clarity. If the lever with grip (3) is pivoted upwards, the oar (1) is submerged in the water due to the pivoting movement of base frame (5). Moving the lever with grip (3) in the opposite direction lifts the oar (1) out of the water again.

When the oar blades (1) enter the water, they are to be squared as shown in FIG. 1 and then at the end of the drive stroke are to be feathered—parallel to the surface of the water—during the recovery stroke, as shown in FIG. 2. The feathering and squaring of the oar blades is normally controlled by the rower, who rotates the grip of the oar accordingly. In order to achieve the same control of the oar blades (1) using the lever with oar (2) and separate lever with grip (3), a rotation drive (15) is provided for the lever with oar (2) in bearing body (9) that is actuated by actuation rod (16) that, in accordance with FIGS. 1 to 3 is implemented as an actuator rod coaxial to main bearing (14) in bearing body (9), that in accordance with the implementation examples shown actuates a toggle lever (19) via a linkage (17) and toggle joint (18), that connects bearing body (9) with the lever with oar (2). When actuator rod (16) moves upwards from the position shown in FIG. 2 to extend the toggle linkage (19), then in doing so it rotates the lever with oar (2) within its bearing body (9), so that the oar blade moves from the feathered position shown in FIG. 2 to the squared position for the drive stroke as shown in FIG. 3.

So that the feathering and squaring of the oar blade (1) can be controlled by rotating the lever with grip (3) in its bearing body (10), lever with grip (3) forms a crank that actuates linkage (20) which is linked to actuator rod (21). In the same way that actuator rod (16) acts on rotation drive (15), this actuator rod (21) is mounted coaxially to the axis of rotation of axle (13) on bearing body (10) for lever with grip (39) so that actuator rod (21) can be shifted up and down in its guideway. To transmit the movement of actuator rod (21) to actuator rod (16) for rotating drive (15), there is a rocker arm (22) mounted on top of base frame (5). Actuator rods (16) and (21) are free to move in accordance with the movements of rocker arm (22), which pivots about its axis (23) and transmits the linear movements of actuator rod (16) to the linear movements of actuator rod (21). Depending on the direction of rotation of lever with grip (3), the lever with oar (2) can be rotated to feather and square the oar blade (1).

Compared to FIGS. 1 to 3, FIG. 4 shows a different implementation with actuator rods (21 and 16) directly linking rocker arm (22) with the crank of lever with grip (3) and linking rocker arm (22) with the rotation drive (15). In this case, the actuator rods (21 and 19) deviate from the axis of the main bearings (13 and 14), which needs to be compensated by ball joints (24, 25). Otherwise, the principle sequence of movement remains the same.

To support the rotational movement needed to feather and square the oar blades (1), the lever with grip (3) can be fitted with a spring configuration (26) as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. This spring configuration (26) causes torque to be applied to the lever with grip (3) in both the limit positions, when the line of action of the spring configuration (26) is shifted from one side of the geometric axis of rotation of lever with grip (3) to the other side. In the example shown in FIG. 5, the spring configuration (26) consists of a tension spring acting between the lever with grip (3) and the relevant bearing body (10). In the limit position shown in FIG. 5, actuator rod (21) is held at its limit of travel by the spring configuration (26). To rotate the lever with grip (3) away from this limit position, lever with grip (3) first has to be rotated against the force of the spring configuration (26) until the line of action of the spring configuration (26) intersects the axis of rotation of lever with grip (3). The spring configuration (26) then applies force to the lever with grip (3) in the direction of rotation to support the rotation of oar blade (1) into the feathered position. The limit position of lever with grip (3) is shown by the broken line that indicates the relevant position of the tension spring. To rotate the oar blade (1) into the squared position, the sequence is in the reverse order.

In FIG. 6 the spring configuration (26) is implemented as two tension springs that lever with grip (3) and bearing body (10). Because these two tension springs form a shared line of action, the force of the spring applied to lever with grip (3) is similar to the spring configuration (26) shown in FIG. 5. The position of spring configuration (26) for the opposite limit of rotation of lever with grip (3) is also indicated by a broken line. 

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus for rowing in the direction the rower is facing with a base frame (5), the main bearing (11) for a lever with hand grip (3) and for a lever with oar (2) and a linkage (12) that connect the lever with hand grip (3) and linkage with oar (2) to form a counteracting four-bar linkage system (4) with actuated bearing body (9) as the driven arm of the four-bar linkage (4) and linked to a rotary drive (15) with a main axle (14) and virtually coaxial actuator (16), wherein the lever with hand grip (3) rotates about its axis so that within the four-bar linkage (4) bearing body (10) is able to rotate and actuate an actuator rod (21) that is virtually coaxial to the main axle (13) on bearing body (10), that engages with a rocker arm (22) mounted on the base frame to shift the actuator rod (16) on the rotary drive (15) for the lever with oar (2).
 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the rotary drive (15) for the lever with oar (2) has a toggle lever (19) between the bearing body (9) and the lever with oar (2), which is directly linked to the actuator rod (16) by a toggle linkage (18).
 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the lever with hand grip that is free to rotate in its bearing body (10) forms a crank to drive actuator rod (21).
 4. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the actuator rod (16, 21) is connected by a ball joint (24, 25) to the rocker arm (22) at one end and with the toggle joint (18) of the rotary drive (15) or the crank of the lever with oar (3) at the other end.
 5. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the actuator rods (16, 21) connected to the rocker arm (22) are implemented so that they can oscillate coaxially to the main bearings (13, 14) of bearing bodies (9, 10), that are linked by a lug (17) to the toggle joint (18) of the rotary drive (15) for the lever with oar (2) or the crank of the lever with grip (3).
 6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a spring configuration (26) is provided between the lever with grip (3) and the bearing body (10) to apply torque to the lever with grip (3), so that the line of action of the spring configuration intersects the axis of rotation of the lever with grip (3) when lever with grip (3) is rotated half way between the two limit positions. 